


Sometimes, Children See More Than Adults

by novasilvertongue



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Anal Sex, Angst, Awkwardness, Blow Jobs, Bondage, Bottom Tony Stark, Civil War Team Iron Man, De-aged Bucky, De-aged tony, Dildos, Dubious Consent, First Time, Fluff, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Kneeling, Light Dom/sub, Loud Sex, M/M, Not Clint Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Not Wanda Friendly, Oral Sex, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sex Toys, Spanking, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Top Bucky Barnes, Underage Sex, Vibrators, and the avengers often walk in on them, basically not avengers friendly, by them if i wasn't clear yet i meant tony and bucky, except for bucky, for Tony that is, sex in many positions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-05-24 22:18:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14963228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novasilvertongue/pseuds/novasilvertongue
Summary: It started when the spell wears off and Tony finds out he’s been having a lot of sex with his parents’ killer.Or maybe it started when the spell de-aged Tony Stark and James Barnes.Or maybe it started when the Rogue Avengers were pardoned and moved back into the compound and Tony avoided them all so nobody would bring up the elephant in the room. The so called civil war.But anyway, it’s started and Tony is so full of internal conflict that he might explode, and he definitely can’t trust or talk to the Avengers. He’s done giving them second chances, but Barnes is a different matter completely. He wasn’t actually trying to hurt him in Siberia, it was all about Rogers. So maybe, just maybe, he’ll go with this and see how it plays out.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> so this is me starting a new fic before i've finished my old one, goodbye responsibility, it was nice meeting you, i trust you can show yourself out or you can take the window.

Tony creeps through the darkened halls on silent feet. He pads around a corner and stops, just listening. Hearing only silence, he continues. A squeak sounds out from under his right foot and he freezes, hardly daring to breathe. Still nothing. He lets out a silent sigh in relief and turns another corner. Success!

Silently cheering inside his head, he makes a mad dash over to the coffee machine and fills a mug. He takes a gulp, ignoring the liquid scalding his throat and tongue, and drains half the mug. A few more smaller sips empty it, and he refills it, then turns around to leave the kitchen. And freezes. Barton is standing there, menacingly. Tony forces out a cheerful, albeit slightly strained greeting and tries to sidle around him. He' blocked by a forearm in his face. Damn his height, and damn everyone for being taller than him! 

"Can I help you Barton?" His voice comes out shakier than he would like. 

"I want to know why the arrows I ordered still haven't come." Tony blinks, because seriously? This guy still wants him to build things for him after making all those horrible comments about Rhodey? Rhodey who's still recovering and barely leaves his mother's house? That Rhodey? He's tempted to say it.

"I'm not in charge of your weapons anymore Barton, if you have a problem, you can take it up with the Accords council."

"I don't see why you can't build us things like before Stark."

"Are you kidding me?" he can't help but let some of the incredulity seep into is tone, "the only reason I built weapons for you before was because we were friends, and my friends always have the best of the best. You no longer fall into that category Barton, so enough whining to me about it and go to talk to the council."

"Me? I'm the whiny ass? You're the one throwing a goddamn fit and compromising the integrity of the team. Stop being a pussy, get over yourself, and build me my fucking arrows!"

"I'll have you know that I don't build weapons anymore. I already told you, I'm not in charge of any of that, the council is. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some leg braces to work on." He walks forward and moves past Barton, but then his shoulder is gripped and wrenched backwards. Tony is slammed up against the wall and the coffee mug falls from his hand and shatters. Neither of the two men notice the hot liquid splash.

Tony, breathe. He can't have a panic attack here in front of Barton. He focuses on breathing. Barton is all up in his face now, pulling his shirt upwards so Tony has to stand on his tiptoes if he doesn't want to choke. He's definitely panicking now.

"You will make me those arrows," he hisses.

"Mr. Barton, step away from Boss." Tony nearly cries in relief at the sound of FRIDAY's voice. He can't help but compare her to JARVIS though. JARVIS never would have let the situation escalate so far. 

"Well what're you gonna do about it?" Tony is still standing there pressed uncomfortably against Barton's chest as he hopes FRIDAY can help. 

"I will take any actions necessary to prevent you from harming boss."

"Clint, let go of him, what are you doing?" It's Rogers. Tony mentally rolls his eyes. Just what he needs. Barton pushes him away with a sneer though, so even he isn't immune to the Captain America is disappointed in you face™. Tony swallows a grunt of pain as he stumbles and steps on one of the broken shards of mug.

"He won't build me my goddamn arrows, and I need them for our missions."

"Tony," great now the face™ is on him, "The mission depends on his arrows, why are you being so stubborn?"

"And I've already told him to take it up with the Accords council, I'm not in charge of any of this."

"Yeah, but yours are the best, don't you think you can spend a little time to make sure the team has good equipment?"

"First of all Rogers, it doesn't take a little time to do that. Secondly, there are many other things that I'd rather spend my time on and are much more useful than arrows, considering Barton is literally one of the only people who uses them. Third, I'm the head of R&D for SI and I have projects that I have to complete as well. You guys may not have another job apart from being an Avenger, but I do. And fourth, my time of pulling all nighters for you guys are over. I'm a busy man, I have better things to do than make specialized arrows. Goodbye, please don't bother me again unless it's important." He walks away fuming. 

Work helps calm him down, and he's improved the leg braces so they're more receptive to the signals sent from the nerves. 10 hours later, he takes a brief shower, collapses onto his bed and sinks into his usual hole of nightmares. He's just heard the cracking sound the arc reactor had made when it had been hit with the shield, when he's very rudely awoken by the call to assemble. He stumbles bleary eyed out of bed, splashes some water on his face, and doesn't even bother changing out of his grease stained jeans and long sleeved undershirt before the armor closes around him. Apparently this situation must not be such a bad one because not everyone is there. It's just him, Rogers, Barnes, Barton, Maximoff, and Vision. The Avengers (not team, never team) are all in the quinjet already. The door closes and it flies off. Tony sighs, calls up the data for the mission, and takes off after them.

It's Loki. He's not doing much damage, but he's enchanted a bunch of trees to run around and is basically just causing trouble. Little though it is, people are still panicking. He gets there and the quinjet is already open, the Avengers spilling out. The coms crackle to life. 

"Alright, Winter and I will distract him. Iron man, you provide air support and ground support. Hawkeye, get somewhere high, see if the trees have a weak spot. Scarlet Witch and the Vision, you get in close and take him down." The orders are rattled out, and everyone does as the Captain orders. And so the battle begins.

It's wild. With Loki, it always is. He never fails to surprise, and Tony feels that if they'd met in different circumstances, they'd have become great friends. He enjoys the witty side of the banter, but sometimes, Loki hits a little too close to home. Like now.

"You are not united little heroes!" He laughs, sending a bolt of green magic towards Rogers. Rogers dodges it. 

"We're a team, of course we're united!"

"A team that ostracizes a member of themselves? My, I may not have ever been on a team before but I'm fairly certain that's not how it works." Tony turns, and Loki manages to hit him. His boot thruster splutters out, and Loki leaps up into the air impossibly high, and drags him downwards. He collides hard with the ground, the armor absorbing most of the impact, but he's still jolted. He pulled upwards as if the armor weighs nothing, and Loki puts hand on his chest, just before he can shoot, and the armor is melting off him. He's suddenly standing in front of the god of mischief, holding up a palm, in ratty jeans and an undershirt, his hair still sleep tousled. Loki gives him a high five.

"I believe this is a custom you Midgardians partake in, is it not?" Tony blinks and stares up at the god. He tries to pull away, but Loki just pulls him closer, cupping a hand to side of his neck, the other still on his arm.

"My, my, what a sight." The battle is going on around them, and Rogers is yelling at Loki to let him go. In his peripheral vision, he can see Barnes creeping up on him, and he really should make a witty comeback anytime soon please brain.

"That's me, always good looking no matter what I've been doing. So glad that I could please you." He strikes a pose. Or at least tries to but he can't really move that well. At least the god looks amused. Well, if Loki finds him interesting, he'll be less likely to kill him. Suddenly, the trickster leans in close.

"You may not need this team to defeat the Titan, but you certainly do require a better state of mind. Now what can be done about that?" Even though he's holding eye contact with Tony, he appears to be talking to himself. 

"What?"

"Ah yes, that should be perfect." Loki turns, grabs Barnes, and everything flashes bright green, before going black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So to clarify, Tony is 15, in his second year of MIT. Bucky (who doesn't make an appearance this chapter) is 17. He hasn't joined the army yet, but he has met Rogers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so I'm adding references of non-con/dub-con in, but not by Bucky (and not in this chapter, although it is referenced.)

Tony wakes up with a pounding headache and a fuzzy, barely there recollection of last night. He opens his eyes a sliver and immediately shuts them tight again. He remembers lights, lots of green lights, reflecting off shiny red and gold decorations. The smell of leather, and being pressed close to someone while doing something, dancing maybe? There were a lot of loud sounds, songs he's never heard before, and someone must have slipped something into his drink because he definitely hadn't taken anything voluntarily. He enjoyed the parties to a certain extent, but when someone was always handing him a drink, if he didn't check it, someone would slip drugs into it. He'd heard the plans of a group of girls, who after getting past that he was 15, wanted to drug him, tie him to a bed, shove a vibrator up his ass, and ride him until he came. He shuddered, remembering hearing about it. He'd made an excuse to leave then, going back to his room and working on DUM-E until he stopped thinking about it. He didn't need his first time to be incredibly special, but he wanted it to be with someone he found attractive and for it to at least be memorable.

He sighs and cracks his eyes open again, eyes watering under the glaring white light. The room is completely bare except for a machine that’s taking his pulse, obviously high tech, but nothing he hasn’t seen before, a camera, and a speaker. If this is a hospital, Howard is definitely going to kill him. He'’’ go on and on about how Stark men are made of iron and that it’s a disgrace to the Stark name, and Tony will always try to explain how he'd got there, but Howard will never listen. He supposes this time is on him though, he should have checked his drink better. He sits up gingerly, and feels mostly alright, just a few bruises here and there, and he should be able to leave without too much of a hassle. He slides out of bed and shivers as his feet touch the cold tile floor. A voice pipes up.

"Bo-- Mr. Stark, I would recommend staying in bed until your headache fades." Irish accent, is he still in the US? Sounds like she's in her late 20s. He pictures a redhead with freckles for some reason.

"Who're you?" his speech is slightly slurred he notices, must have been the real good stuff then.

"You can call me Friday, I-- work here." Sounds suspicious, has he been kidnapped again? Then what were all the flashy lights? Time to test a few things.

"I'd like some water, can you let me out?" 

"I'm afraid I can't let you out Mr. Stark, I can however, send someone in for you." Another kidnapping then. He mentally sighs. Hmm, he can argue and try and get out. Friday probably won't let let him though. On the other hand, he can grill whoever gets him water for more information and try and get a better grasp at his situation. Better not to attack them yet so he can lull them into a false sense of security. Whoever his captors are, they've been pretty careless leaving so much technology laying around the room if they know who he is. He makes his decision.

"Ok, thanks Friday, and please, call me Tony. Mr. Stark is my father." He stays sitting on the bed, facing towards the door, and a few minutes later, the door slides open and a man with sandy blond hair walks in. He treads lightly, and he must be well trained, dammit. Tony has taken classes, but this man is clearly one of the top, maybe even the top of his trade. Now he definitely can't attack. He looks to be in his late 40s, and his physical features are utterly unremarkable, except that he looks like he wants to kill Tony. 

"You seem nice," he pipes up, "Can I have the water?" The man glares at him and hands him the glass. Tony sips at the water and stares back.

"So who did I piss off to get here? And why do you look like I tried your kill your best friend and then mocked you about it? And why exactly am I even here? I mean it's a lovely place, three bare white walls to stare at all day, and a blacked out glass door, five stars right there, but I'd rather be at home sleeping off my hangover." The flinch is barely perceptible, but still there. The man also seems slightly confused. Curiouser and curiouser. Just what is he dealing with here? He continues on his mission to flabbergast the man.

"I know I'm a gorgeous specimen and all, but usually kidnappers kidnap me more than just to stare, well unless it's sex that you want, the chance to defile the great Tony Stark and believe me when I say you really didn't need to kidnap me for that. I don't really go for guys as old as you though, and they have to at least be attractive, not that I'm saying you're ugly or anything, just definitely not my type. Not that I could stop you if you wanted to fuck me I guess. Well?" The man is gaping now, that's good, he's under the Stark charm, and he's definitely been kidnapped enough times to know that he always has to appear to be in control of the situation. Fake it 'til you make it, and don't show any fear, or they'll hone in on it like a shark smelling blood. The door slides open silently, and a redhead walks in. What is it with people who look like they want to kill him today? The man had seemed openly aggressive, but this woman was clearly the more dangerous of the two. The barely contained look of hostility was concealed well, but Tony had been reading people before he'd learned how to walk. While the man tread lightly, she glided and barely touched the floor. Must be very flexible, and from the way she moved, she looked like she could kill you with her thighs. However she also had the look of someone who knows they're a master and is proud of it, and that was her first mistake.

"Clint, Friday said you might need a bit of help." It was stated flatly, as though she was saying he needed her. That was the second mistake, underestimating him and using their names, and he could tell that was his real name as his eyes flickered subconsciously towards her. Arrogance, not as dangerous as initially thought. All he had to do was feed her ego a bit and he could play her like a puppet. Maybe she was a master fighter, probably an assassin with how lightly she walked, but her personality definitely wasn't recommended and would be detrimental to missions. 

"Can we talk outside, Tasha?" 

"Of course." The door slides open and the two walk outside.

“He thinks we kidnapped him to have sex with us.” 

“Typical Stark, with an ego so huge, no wonder that’s the only thing he thinks.” She wonders what revenge she could get for Stark being on the winning team after the Accords ficaso while he’s this young. She starts mulling over the possibilities. Death, he wouldn’t understand why she’d kill him as technically they’ve never met. Something traumatic maybe. She mulls over the possibilities.

“Yeah. Well what are we supposed to tell him? Of course we don’t want to have sex with him, but we can’t let him leave either.”

“Mmm.” She mumbles. Suddenly what Clint says catches up to her. 

“Of course we don’t want to have sex with him,” she repeats. That would be traumatic. And considering he didn’t remember anything now, he wouldn’t later, if there was a later, so he wouldn’t be able to do anything. Give him experiences that would be considered traumatic, nothing that he’d enjoy, but definitely something that would scar him. She now has a plan.

“We should shut down Friday, she might help Stark escape.” She uses the special sign language that only the two of them know, disguising it with scratches on the nose and a hand through her hair. Clint looks thoughtful for a moment, then nods. Gullible. She continues.

“So what should we tell Stark?” Another voice cuts in. Friday.

“If I may, you should tell boss the truth. He will eventually figure it out. If you tell him, you’ll be able to gain part of his trust which will make working with boss easier.”

“He won’t be able to figure it out,” she scoffs.

“Boss is of genius intellect, he knows technology better than anyone, and if he sees how advanced it is, it will not take him long.” 

“Unless we lock him up somewhere.”

“I will not allow that,” Friday’s voice takes on an icy tone, “and I doubt neither Mr. Rogers nor the Vision will.”

“Vision will have to stay out of this,” observes Clint, “his appearance would raise too many questions.”

“Alright, we’ll tell him.” she concedes. 

An hour and a picked apart Starkpad later, Stark finally believes that he’s been cast into the future. The first person he asks after is Edwin Jarvis. They don’t even know who he is.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets settled in (kind of)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short chapter, sorry

While Stark is examining the pieces of the Starkpad, Natasha goes down to the control rooms and tries to hack into Friday to shut her down. However, she soon finds out that the code is impenetrable, even though before the civil war, Stark had mentioned many times that Friday had barely grown and was akin to a baby. Thinking back to how easily she had disabled Jarvis, a program much more developed than Friday, she realizes Stark must have let her, and flushes in shame. It quickly passes. Now that she can no longer carry out on her plans for revenge. She has to be a lot more subtle in manipulating him because Friday can see everything.

She and Friday make a deal. Because they’re probably the best people suited to look after him, Rhodey too busy with his legs to take care of anyone, Pepper too busy with SI, and the compound being fairly secure, Friday will help them take care of Tony as long as there are no more attempts to hack into her servers. If they do attempt to hack into her servers, she will release certain pieces information about Natasha that would be extremely detrimental to her. She agrees, because what other choice does she have? Then she goes to talk to Stark.

“We’re a team of superheroes who protect the world, so we can’t let you out of the compound. If anybody sees you, it will be disastrous. We’re trying to find a way to send you back, and if people get ahold of this news, they might try to kidnap you as a bargaining chip considering you’re the most vulnerable one of us. One way or another, it will slow down the progress.” She’s obviously hiding something, Tony isn’t sure what, but even through her mask of impassiveness, he can tell by her eyes that she must be lying. The superhero thing seems to be true though. He decides not to call her out on the lie. Better not to show his hand so early in the game.

“Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect?” she asks him, and he nods once.

“We can’t allow you usage of the internet, or any technology. We know that you can build a radio from almost anything. Thing is, we don’t want you to know what’s happened to the future you, or something in our timeline could be disrupted. The goal here is to keep you as sheltered as possible so there aren’t any drastic changes.” It’s a lie she and Clint discussed and went over together, and it’s believable enough. She’ll have to tell the others about it soon so that they’re all on the same page. 

“Not the whole compound is open to you, but you’ll have free reign over most of it. If you need anything, like heating up your food, turning on a movie, or ordering something, you can ask Friday. We’ve taken your measurements and she’s ordered some clothes for you. We’ve also prepared one of the guest rooms for you, but you’re going to have to stay here, until we can enforce the rules.”

“Enforce the rules? How?” She doesn’t say anything, and instead walks out the door. Tony rolls his eyes. Such a typical power play, now he’s supposed to stew in apprehension even though he’ll know whatever she’s going to do as soon as she does it. The answer comes about an hour later in the form of a brown haired woman with a foreign accent, somewhere in Europe maybe, in her mid twenties. Like everyone else he’s met today, with the exception of Friday, she seems to hate him as well. However, unlike “Clint” and “Tasha”, she doesn’t even try to disguise it, and the mad glint in her eye is fairly unsettling.

“You’re going to do what now? Somehow mind control me to not leave the compound and not be able to use any form of technology? You know, I don’t think I’m very comfortable with this, can we just do a pinky promise?” If she’s telling the truth, and he has to assume the worst case scenario, the proposal sounds horrible. He won’t have full autonomy of his own body, and he won’t even be able to pick up something trivial like a TV remote. 

“It’s necessary Stark, get over yourself and let me do it.” He turns to “Tasha”, sure that she’ll listen to reason more, and won’t purposely antagonize him if she wants him to behave.

“Can we do more of an intent thing? Like if I do anything and I’m thinking about doing it to leave the compound or access information about myself it will stop me. But it I just want to use the toaster, it won’t stop me. Oh also can I get your name, I’ve been calling you Tasha in my head but I don’t really like that kind of familiarity with people who’ve locked me in a room and are trying to kill me through the force of a stare.” It’s a subtle jab that reminds her once more that even though he’s fifteen, he’s already escaped from a few hostage situations and that he could do it again if he wanted to. She looks thoughtful for a moment and then nods. The other woman looks briefly disappointed. Wonderful, he’s something landed himself in the company of a sadist.

“I’m Tash Rushman.”

“That’s a lie.” He can't help himself, and feels a brief sense of satisfaction as she looks startled briefly. She covers it up quickly and corrects herself.

“Natasha Romanoff then.” He smirks at her. It doesn’t reach his eyes. 

“And who might the lovely lady who’ll be screwing around in my head be?”

“That’s Maximoff.”

“Well then, let’s get started shall we?”

The world is lost to a haze of violent red, and once he comes back to his own mind, he’s feeling dizzy, weak, and cold. It’s not nice.

“Your room is this way.” Romanoff strides out the door with Maximoff. He slides his legs to the floor and his knees nearly buckle underneath him. Taking a deep breath, he tries again, then totters after Romanoff unsteadily. By the time he catches up to her, Maximoff has already gone on her merry way. His room is one of the nicer rooms he’s stayed in. It’s spacious enough, with a large bed, a sturdy desk, and several other pieces of furniture. There are shopping bags on the bed, probably clothes and toiletries, and a door on the side of the room leads to what’s probably the bathroom. Even though it’s completely impersonal, no weird wallpaper, no posters, and no ornaments, he still feels like it was built with him in mind. 

"Someone wants to see you, but he's dealing with something right now. He'll probably stop by tomorrow." She's obviously trying to get him to ask who she she can not answer again, but he doesn't rise to the bait.

"Ok." He starts rifling through the bags, a clear dismissal. When he looks up again, she's gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter contains bucky yay


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Romanoff is manipulative and a bit freaked out, Bucky is Bucky because there really hasn't been any character development for him yet, and Rogers is gullible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I know I promised Bucky, and there is a bit of him but not much sorry.

Natasha doesn't like this version of Tony Stark. He's cold and calculating, and seems to be able to assess everything. He's beating her at her own game, and she hates it. She strides down the hall, seemingly confident, but trying to hide how much it throws her off balance. If a young version of Tony Stark is capable of so much, what could the older one do? Come to think of it, what other talents is he hiding? She wonders why he was so taken in by them. Probably the idea of friendship and trust and family. She rolls her eyes. 

Then subtly rolls them again as she enters another room. Speaking of friendship and trust and family, Rogers is still sitting at Barnes' bedside. He'd been there almost the entire time, since Loki had hit Barnes and Stark with the spell. Honestly, Rogers is useful, but sometimes, it can get really annoying how much trouble he can be. Barnes is still unconscious, but the spell had also de-aged him. Oddly enough, he still has the metal arm that Stark had built him, although Loki had somehow shrunk it down so it fit him. They had had tested his blood as well, and although he had lost the super soldier serum, he still looks a lot healthier. 

She plasters a look of concern on her face, with a hint of suppressed worry. She needs this conversation to go her way. 

"Any change in his condition?" Rogers startles slightly, but brightens. He must have been deep in thought for his enhanced hearing not to have noticed her. It also shows that he trusts her. Good.

"Actually there has been. His brain waves aren't as still and his breathing and pulse are picking up. The doctor says at this rate, he should be fully conscious in only a few hours," here he frowns, "he doesn't know what triggered the change though, because it just happened seemingly randomly about two hours ago." 

"That's great news Steve!" She knows he buys into her act when he relaxes slightly. Step one, success.

"Yeah, it really it." As casually as she can, she continues.

"Have you thought about what you're going to tell him?" 

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that when you walked in. I'll probably tell him the truth, I wouldn't want to lie to my friend, but I'll keep him away from Tony for as long as possible. It might trigger some sort of memory, and I need Bucky to be safe. Also, I don't really want Tony to be a bad influence on him." Natasha thinks it through and decides that apparently the conversation won't be as difficult as she initially thought, because that's what she wants as well. Although she wants it for completely different reasons. Barnes can easily be kept in line by Rogers, and that would be beneficial, but what she's worried about is mostly how Tony and Barnes will get along. Rogers had told her some stories about Barnes when he was younger, about how he was friendly to everyone, and could make friends with anyone. She wanted Tony to be alone and feel isolated, and Barnes would be the sand in the gears to her well crafted plan if the two became close.

"That sounds like a good plan." They sit in near silence, and Natasha arranges her body language to be slightly worried, but anticipating as she starts plotting. Everyone else has already been wrapped in her web, ready to be used. Barnes will be easy, but Stark on the other hand... She needs a better plan than the one she currently has.

At the three hour mark, Barnes starts moving around a bit more, and ten minutes later, they're explaining everything to him. At first he doesn't believe that Rogers is Rogers after hearing about the super soldier theorem and the military and everything, but after a retelling of an incident in school involving a piece of chalk, a fork, and stone, another about a childhood game that only the two of them had played, he accepts the fact with a thoughtful look on his face. 

She notices however, that Rogers doesn't bring up Bucky joining the army, or anything about Hydra and the Winter Soldier. Natasha continues with the more general facts about the future; some social movements, a bit about politics, some US history, and occasionally, she sees Rogers looking confused as if he hadn't known about something she'd talked about. That could be looked into later on. After that, Rogers talks about smaller details, the food, the city, some forms of technology that had fascinated him, and although Barnes seems interested in it all, he seemed to have paid the most attention to the gay movement. 

Rogers doesn't appear to have noticed, still blathering on about how expensive everything is even though he’d almost never had to pay for anything with Stark funding them the whole time. When they're finished, Barnes has a lot of questions, and to her, he's respectful, calling her ma'am, but he calls Rogers, "Stevie". Her plan is already working, and she smiles internally. After he starts asking even more questions about how acceptable it is to be gay, Rogers cuts in tersely.

"You know Buck, just because something has changed, it doesn't mean we have to as well. In fact some of the values in this century are really weird." Natasha almost raises her eyebrows in disbelief. Who knew America's golden boy was homophobic? She files it away for further use.

Eventually they set him up in another room on about halfway across the compound. If Stark decides to have a look around, he'll probably bypass it in favor of the far end with his short attention span. She breathes a bit easier knowing that revenge will be served, and when Rogers has settled Barnes in, she hunts him down again.

"What are we going to tell the media?" He frowns at her.

"Huh, I haven't really thought about that? What do you think?" Inwardly, she smiles again. Let him continue to think he's the leader, while she pulls all the strings.

"We should probably say they just need some time to recover. Don't make it a big deal, we don't want Potts or Rhodes getting worried enough to stop by."

"Sound like a good idea."

"I think you should also--"

FRIDAY really doesn't know what she should do as she listens to the conversation. She doesn't have any protocols for this sort of situation, but she's pretty sure she's already screwing up. She's too young for this, and wishes JARVIS, her predecessor whom Boss had told her bits and pieces about, was here to guide her. Her code seemed to have slowed down, and it seemed glitchy when Maximoff was using her powers. It had happened in Siberia as well, and she guesses it's the equivalent to some sort of negative human emotion that makes carrying out processes more difficult. 

But now, as she's listening to Romanoff speak, she hears untrustworthiness. She's read her files, and she knows a quite a bit about her, and she thinks she knows enough to be able to see behind some of her masks, but human facial expressions are so complicated, even with data from all over the globe to compare to. However, right now, Romanoff either isn't at the top of her game, or she isn't as good as her files claim. The manipulation of Rogers is fairly blatant, and Friday wonders how the man can't see through her. But, as soon as she mentions not wanting to get Miss. Potts or the Colonel involved, something clicks inside of FRIDAY. That's who she should have contacted! She knows the two, no matter how busy they are, will be able to make time for Tony. They'll have his best interests at heart which is definitely not something she can about the Rogues. 

As she listens to Romanoff going on about how the more people involved, the more at risk Boss will be, she wonders why her code didn't go in that direction at first. She hadn't even thought about Miss. Potts and the Colonel, it seemed as if it had been temporarily erased. In fact, now that she goes over more and more data, it seems as though her code had been more uncooperative after she had been forcefully ejected from the iron man armor. She had tried to reach out to the armor again, but it was seemingly gone, and she couldn't even detect the distinct energy of the arc reactor. It’s like everything is more clear and less sluggish now, and she wonders what cleared up her code. She diverts a fraction of her attention to catch more patterns as to when and how. It’s not that important, Boss is always her first priority, but the information would still be beneficial. 

She dials the Colonel, and less than a beat later, he picks up.

“Tony? Is everything ok? We heard about what Loki did to you, are you alright?”

“Sorry Colonel, Boss is currently indisposed. Allow me to explain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salt, hypocrites, and salt, see if you can catch it all lol


End file.
